Reflection
by ChumpMaterial
Summary: As he lays awaiting death, he contemplates his short life in Sotoba. A slight divergence occurs. Oneshot.


**It's been a long while since I've actually written anything for this site. I don't really have any excuse for that other than that I didn't want to continue the story I had previously posted, and I was too lazy to actually cancel the story I was writing at the time. I recently got into Shiki, and it needed more. There's not a lot of content for Shiki, and the show needs it badly. That, and more recognition.  
**

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As Natsuno falls down the Shiki corpse pit, he thinks. His enhanced senses allow accelerated thought processes in his mind, so all there is left to do is think. He thinks about the things he was planning on doing, like going to a college in the city.

Oh, how he joyously awaited the moment he left. Oh, how his plans of how he wanted to run his life were ruined by the Shiki.

He also thinks about the meagre amount of friends he made. Tohru is a name that frequently comes to mind, but he tries not to think about it. He is reminded too often as to what his friend's still moving corpse has done, to him, and to various other people of the village.

Kaori and Akira. Those were two people Natsuno did not expect to become his friends. They were always so naive, but in a refreshing way that made him remember what he fought and ultimately died for. They were far too innocent for the horrors that have been going on in Sotoba. Natsuno likened them to the younger siblings he never had.

He regreted taking them all for granted, for acting so callously. His old excuse was that strange things were going on, that he should investigate. If Natsuno knew that those would be the few times he would ever see them again, at the very least alive, he would have done at the very least _something_ to show that he cared.

Now, Natsuno is just weary from constant investigative work, from dying and then coming back as the _thing_ he was trying to stop. His muscles screamed in fatigue, his stomach pleaded for blood.

But Natsuno couldn't stop now. He was so close to ending this! He was about to rid the world of it's last two Jinrou! At last, the human world would be able to breath easy without these stalkers of both night and day.

Then Natsuno hit the floor of the pit, battered, but not yet broken. He could feel his pierced skin stitching together, his broken bones quickly setting. If he wasn't dead yet, than Tatsumi wasn't ei-

"I see now... This was what you really had planned from the beginning, wasn't it?" Tatsumi growled out, "But, Jinrou don't die from something like this."

It was almost too bad for Tatsumi that Natsuno predicted this from the start.

"Inconvenient, huh?" Natsuno replies. He brings his hands into the pockets of his jacket, and brings out a lighter and a stick of dynamite.

Heh, now that he thinks about it, he probably should have been nicer to that Megumi chick in the first place, even with the whole 'I killed your friend' deal. She probably wouldn't have been as demented when she turned, if she even did.

There were so many things that Natsuno wanted to do, too. He never even left the country to go sightseeing. He should have spent more time with his parents, his friends. People in general, too. Hell, he might have even been able to get a girlfriend. Instead, he spent his time in the village holed up in his room.

Natsuno then lights the stick of dynamite.

But then again, as a Jinrou, Natsuno felt as if he deserved to die again, so that people wouldn't have to suffer what he did. Why should anyone have to suffer for or from this unnatural hunger? These creatures of the night did not deserve any mercy. Natsuno learned this the hard way from Tohru's still moving corpse.

Natsuno then shifted his thoughts on the Shiki themselves. At first glance, they were just monsters that enjoyed what they did, but taking a closer look Natsuno could tell that wasn't the case. They were just people afflicted with an unearthly hunger and given a nature ideal for hunting humans. While it didn't shift his overall opinion on the Shiki, it did give him pity for the people trapped inside the monsters.

Tatsumi's breath catches in the back of his throat. He then glances back to the opening of the pit, and then sighs.

"You don't need to do this. Aren't you afraid of dying?" Tatsumi says, appealing for both of their un-lives.

Natsuno contemplated the question. While he didn't want to die, he didn't think he was actually afraid of it. He would simply be returning to where he belonged, the graveyard. But now, in retrospect, he was more afraid then he ever thought he would be. Natsuno just didn't care.

"I've been dead for some time now." Natsuno responds. He was just about to accept his fate, too, when he suddenly thought.

Natsuno still had a pulse. He hadn't taken anyone's life, so far. He didn't count the various Shiki, or that one Jinrou, of course, but he hadn't killed a person. He could subsist on human food, although it would be uncomfortable at times. He still wanted to live! Natsuno then came to a crossroads: Does he value his own life over stopping Tatsumi?

Then Natsuno decided to take a gamble for his own life. _Tatsumi had already accepted that he was going to die, so his reflexes should be dull,_ Natsuno thought. If he could find a trajectory that was just right, then more of the explosion would hit Tatsumi and Natsuno would get a Jinrou shield.

Then Natsuno chucked the stick of dynamite into the air. It landed so that Tatsumi was inbetween the explosive and Natsuno. All Tatsumi could do was widen his eyes before the explosion engulfed him.

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The pit had been still for some time now. Hours had faded into days, and days into a week. However, nothing happened. Exactly one week after the explosion had occured, a hand gripped onto the edge of the pit, holding on as if his will to live substituted his strength. The hand looked like it had seen much, although only scars remained.

Then the rest of the body pulled itself up, revealing Natsuno. He had, against a great deal of odds, survived. Then he plopped onto the ground, and for the first time in a long while, laughed a long, hearty laugh in a pure sense of victory.

Natsuno could now live his life _his_ way. He could do his own stuff, now, without either of his parents bothering him about it. Although, with this independence came responsibility. Natsuno was confident he could make it on his own, albeit he would have to make sacrifices of luxury for a good time until he could get himself on his own feet and get his own job.

Although, the agony from a near complete body regeneration was quite painful. Natsuno then decided upon trying not to get his nose into anything that wasn't his complete business. He didn't want to get into anything that could very well end with similar pains.

Natsuno then sits up, looking as to where the nearest road would be. After determining which direction he would go, he stands up, a determined look in his eyes, then starts his long voyage to civilization.

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 **And there's a wrap. Review, favorite, stuff like that, if you enjoyed it.**


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